Assistant professor of biochemistry and medical biochemistry, Auinash Kalsotra, has been awarded the Basil O’Conner Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes.
Assistant professor of biochemistry and medical biochemistry, Auinash Kalsotra, has been awarded the Basil O’Conner Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes. Created in 1973 and named for the first March of Dimes chairman and president, this program provides funding to young investigators to start their own research projects on topics related to the March of Dimes mission. The grant provides $150,000 over a two-year period for research on alternative splicing’s role in Myotonic Dystrophy, a multi-systemic disease that affects about 1 in 8000 people.
Alternative splicing is a key mechanism that produces precise assortment of proteins for each cell type. It is a highly regulated process, which when gone awry results in diseases like myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). DM1 arises due to an unusual mutation where a small DNA segment of the mutated gene is repeated hundreds of times. When the mutated gene is copied into RNA, it gets trapped inside the nucleus and becomes toxic by disrupting function of muscleblind like (Mbnl) family of splicing regulatory factors. Mbnl proteins normally participate in regulation of developmental splicing transitions. Their inactivation in DM1 results in expression of embryonic splicing patterns, which is detrimental to the function of adult tissues.
While the role of Mbnl1 in DM1 skeletal and cardiac muscle pathology is clear, the effects of its loss of activity in the gastro-intestinal and other tissues are poorly understood. Dr. Kalsotra's project aims to characterize Mbnl1 function in the liver by identifying its RNA targets and determining the consequences of its loss on liver physiology and function. These studies will advance our understanding of Mbnl1 function in liver development and provide new insights into DM1 pathophysiology.
The mission of the March of Dimes is to promote healthy pregnancies and to support research that can lead to the prevention of birth defects. Dr. Kalsotra’s research will lead to our understanding of molecular mechanisms that may be responsible for the developmental defects observed in this debilitating disease. Dr. Kalsotra holds appointments in both the College of Medicine and the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.